The Shortman Family
by Nairobi-Harper
Summary: Explore the lives and adventures of Arnold and Helga's children as they try to deal with the anxieties and stress that come from growing up.


Author's Note: For a long time, I have not been writing as frequently as I have hoped that I could. I have been over-thinking my stories and procrastinating on my writing. I have wanted for my writing to be perfect, though after some reflection, I have come to realize that no story is truly perfect. I will try my best with this story, but it will not always look as I'd look for it to look, and that is alright. I hope to be writing more frequently, and I hope that you enjoy this story.

The first few chapters will just be an introduction of sorts into the lives of these characters. Later on, I will be starting with actual storylines and plots. For now, you'll be getting introduced!

 **The Shortman Family**

 **Chapter One: They Don't Understand**

On one fall morning, Stella Shortman awoke to the sound of a ringing alarm clock.

"Time to wake up, kids!" her mother, Helga, shouted from another room. Stella and her siblings all responded with some form of a groan or grimace.

She could hear her father, Arnold, yawning. "Breakfast is on the table, guys."

While Stella would feel decent waking up any other day, today was certainly not a day in which she felt _decent._ No, today she felt awful, thinking about what would be going on today. Today, with her siblings, she'd be going off to _school._

In the Shortman family, there were four children: Andrew, Stella, Phil, and Cecile. On this day, they would be all starting a new grade. Andrew would be starting his sophomore year of high school, Stella would be a freshman, Phil would be a fifth-grader, and Cecile would be a fourth-grader. As the family sat down to eat their breakfast, they all discussed their thoughts on school.

Andrew sat down, biting into his breakfast. "School this year sounds like it's going to be interesting. I've got basketball practice with Alexander, and some kind of advanced math class, but the clubs I signed up for sound pretty exhausting."

"Well, y'know, if it gets too exhausting, you can drop one or two of them," Helga said, using a spatula to put a sausage on everyone's plate. "I mean, criminy, your aunt Olga always belonged to a ton of clubs, but I remember that when I was a little kid, those clubs were practically her entire life. She pretended that she wasn't, but she was so stressed that she could rip her hair out. You kids don't need to be too stressed over school, but remember that your dad and I here didn't raise slackers." She raised the spatula for emphasis.

"We aren't slackers, mom," Phil said, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah," Cecile added, "we're really good kids." She looked toward her father. "Right, dad?"

Arnold looked up, smiling. "Yeah, Cecile. You're all really good kids. Just don't forget that when you get to school."

"So, Stella, are you excited about your first day?" Arnold asked, pouring syrup onto his pancakes.

Stella sighed, staring at the floor. "Seeing my friends will be fun, and I really want to get to Band class. Aside from that, I sort of want to stay home."

"It's not as bad as you think," Andrew cut in. "I wasn't exactly excited on my first day of freshman year. People always say it's not that bad, but most of the time they really are telling the truth. It can kind of suck, but it's not _that_ bad."

"Yeah, school is kind of boring sometimes," Phil concurred, "but it's not too bad. At least we aren't in boarding school."

Cecile smiled. "Yeah, and anything can be fun if you _make_ it fun."

Stella forced a tight-lipped smile, trying to show her family that she appreciated what they were saying. "Thanks, guys."

Breakfast continued on, and eventually, some-time later, Andrew and Stella found themselves standing in front of their school: Hillwood High School.

"See you after-school, Stella," Andrew said, walking in the opposite direction. "Hope you have a good day."

Stella glanced over at her brother, smiling. "See ya." She held on tightly to her schedule, knowing that Andrew was watching her to assure that she got to her locker safely.

Stella walked over to her locker, trying to spot her best friend: Nicole Curtis. Stella had technically known Nicole since kindergarten, though they had never really been close back then. Back then, Nicole was just a "troublemaker" and Stella was just "some girl." She had only really started making an effort to befriend Nicole in seventh-grade, after she'd realized from a few talks with Nicole that Nicole really wasn't as bad as other people said she was. Actually, if you asked Stella, Nicole was pretty cool. She was a great soccer player, a fast runner, and she could skateboard better than nearly anyone that Stella knew. She cared about people, too, much more than she'd ever admit. People who didn't see Nicole's greatness were just glancing at a photo instead of observing it.

As she tried to glance around and look for Nicole, Stella instead found herself faced with the sight of two other people… Annabel and Grace.

Annie Gammelthorpe and Grace Miller were two girls at school, the kind of girls that belonged to the crowd of popular girls. It wasn't difficult to see why – they were pretty, sweet (depending on who you asked,) and in the case of Annie, one came from a rich family. To most people in Hillwood, they were just two rich high school girls. Not to Stella. No, Stella had known them before they were popular.

She had grown up with them. Their mothers had all been friends, and Stella remembered what those days had been like, alright. She remembered days when she had tried out makeup kits with them, and called them her best friends. She remembered running through fields with them at the park, and laughing with them.

Now, as she looked at them, they just seemed to be two strangers. She wasn't going to say it – not to their faces – but she wished, somewhat, that she had called them during the summer. She hadn't really been too close with either of them since seventh-grade. While she'd always like them, she had never really wanted to be popular. Stella had a good amount of friends, but not the number of friends that Annie and Grace did. She wore makeup, but she didn't spend her time looking at makeup tutorials like they did. She'd always like them, but they were just… well, different people.

Grace spoke first, popping her bubblegum, as per usual. "Where were you this summer?" She smiled. "Annie and I had tons of fun. We went to a carnival and stuff, and we were going to invite you, but you never called us up!"

Annie looked somewhat hurt. "We went out to the _spa,_ Stella, the _spa._ We could have had your hair and nails done, just like old times!" Annie sighed, shaking her head. "You would have looked _so_ nice with some new highlights in your hair. Those pink ones are great, but they could look _so_ much better."

Stella looked toward them, biting her lip guiltily. "Sorry, guys. I kind of had a busy summer. We could do something this weekend, if you want."

Annie and Grace looked at each other in the way that they always did, the old up-and-down way. Stella liked them both just fine, but she had never liked _**that**_ up-and-down look, the one that told her that they were considering something. She'd never say it to them, but sometimes she just wished that they would be blunt with her about how they felt… it'd be much easier to deal with than _those_ looks.

They nodded at her in agreement to the "weekend" deal, before Annie started to speak.

Annie looked at her, eyes shifting back and forth as though she were analyzing her. "Stella, this summer, were you hanging out with…" Her face turned into one of grimace. "Nicole Curtis?" Grace, by her side like always, appeared to be looking her over as well, though Grace's eyes were much softer.

Stella looked at them, confused. "I mean, yeah. She's pretty cool. Why?"

The two girls appeared to be horrified, from what Stella could tell.

"Stella, don't tell her I said so, but that girl is _rude_ ," Grace said.

"And she's a troublemaker, too," Annie added. "She doesn't even have any fashion sense, Stella! Have you _seen_ the ripped jeans that she wears? Those were out of style five years ago!" Annie sighed, looking as though she felt pity for Nicole. "I really do wish she'd let us help her. It's so awful that people make fun of her for the clothes she wears. I mean, she's mean, from what I heard, but I don't think she's a bad person."

Stella scowled. "Well, I hang out with her. Am I considered a troublemaker by your friend group, too?"

"My goodness, Stella, why would you think that?" Annie asked. "I can't believe we gave you that impression. You mean a lot more to us than we usually say, we're just worried about you - we're not trying to be mean."

Grace frowned, looking more and more concerned by the second. "Well, sure Stella, but you don't need to _**know**_ someone like that. She's just mean, and she's not going to change."

Annie bit her lip. "Well, I mean, she _could_ change, Grace." She turned to Stella, giving her a bit of a look. "If she ever came up to me and asked, I'd love to give her pointers. It would great to help out someone like that!" She smiled at Grace. "It would fun, wouldn't it?"

Grace smiled, nodding quietly. "A lot of fun!" She glanced back over at Stella, noticing that Stella seemed to be upset. "You okay, Stella?"

Stella tried to fight back a scowl, though she couldn't help it. She laughed uncomfortably, trying to ease the situation. "You've never even given her a chance. She's a pretty chill person, man." She shrugged, trying her best to seem as laidback as she usually did. "I don't think you guys have ever really even met, have you?"

Annie gasped. "No, Stella, we didn't mean it like _that!_ Like I said, she's not a _bad_ person. It's just…" Annie sighed, biting her lip uncomfortably. "She could just be better. We're sorry if you think that we meant to insult her."

Grace nodded, with a sour look on her face. "She's probably insulted us more times, anyway."

Stella shook her head, becoming more and more irritated by the moment. "Look, I'm not going to stop hanging out with Nicole just because you guys are presuming things. I think she's a really cool person, and I'm not going to change my mind just because you came up to me telling me about how much you hate Nicole. I think we all have better things to do with our time." She continued staring at them, trying to make a point.

Grace gave her a bit of a look, and then a pout, looking down at her watch. "Class is gonna start in a few minutes. Annie and I need to go off, but we didn't want to hurt your feelings or anything like that. We just think you're getting yourself into a bad situation."

Stella didn't say anything, not wanting to have an argument she found pointless, instead trying to keep herself from glaring at Annie and Grace as they turned around.

"I hope we can catch you this weekend, Stella," Annie said as they walked toward the classrooms. She waved at Stella, though Stella did not wave back.

Stella groaned, finally allowing herself to glare back at them. She couldn't say that she was _surprised._ She liked Annie and Grace, sure, but she couldn't deny that

No, no, no, she reminded herself, shaking her head. This wasn't Andrew's fault. He couldn't have predicted this. He was always great at giving advice, just like their father, but no one could be right all the time, especially not about something like this.

But school was _always_ like this. It just kind of sucked. She understood why she had to be there, but she'd rather be at home, really, listening to a nice song, or out on a field playing soccer. She didn't want to go off to first-period math. She just wanted to be home. She almost wished that she could turn around and go home, but then she saw…

Nicole, standing there, looking like she had seen red. Tall and skinny Nicole, who looked like she was going to cry.

Now, Stella wouldn't lie, she'd never really been the best with empathy - when it came to rationality and emotion, she'd always been much better at dealing with rationality. Feelings were a topic that she didn't want to tackle, but she wasn't going to sit there and let Nicole look sad.

"Umm... everything okay?" Stella asked, crossing her arms and trying to hide her own discomfort.

Nicole groaned, looking up at Stella. "I'm fine. Just drop it."

Stella nearly jumped at the opportunity to drop the topic of _**feelings,**_ but she seemed to come right on back to it. "Err... I don't think you want me to drop it."

Nicole sighed, looking up at Stella. "The people in my house are evil."

Stella thought back a bit, and recalled the previous week, when Nicole had told her over the phone about how her stepmother had been acting. "Oh. Your stepmom again?"

Nicole glanced at her again, before glancing back down. "Yeah, it was that _woman._ She said I'm worthless. She called me weird. No one ever asks, but I like being weird. Least it makes me a little different."

"Nicole, you aren't worthless," Stella said, simply and shortly. "I don't really say this to people, but…" Stella paused, smiling, trying to shake off the uncomfortable feeling. "You're one of the most chill people I know."

Though Nicole didn't meet her eyes, Stella could tell by the slight smirk that she had on her face that Nicole felt much better. "Guess it was nice to hear from you, Shortman." She glanced up at Stella, grinning. "Where'd you get that name from, anyway? _Shortman._ No one in your family is short, except for your little brother."

Stella grinned right back, feeling herself ease right back into the situation. "Well, my great-grandpa says that the story goes like this: legend has it that a long time ago, in my family tree, there was a boy in Scotland who just didn't eat enough of his vegetables…"

As Stella walked up and down the hallway with Nicole, watching her laugh, she knew just one thing about Annie and Grace: as kind as they were, as fashionable as they were – they just didn't understand all that there was to Nicole Curtis.


End file.
